One of Saudi Arabia's two female Olympic team members will be allowed to compete in the judo while wearing a headscarf after a compromise was reached, the International Olympic Committee said today.

Wodjan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani will compete after Saudi Arabia's Olympic Committee reached an agreement with the International Judo Federation following talks yesterday.

It comes after Marius Vizer, the Austrian president of the sport's world governing body, said last week that Shahrkhani would not be allowed to wear a headscarf to compete for safety reasons.

But Mark Adams, communications director of the International Olympic Committee, said: ''I can confirm that the federation and the National Olympic Committee met yesterday. They have a solution that works for all parties involved.''

Asked what the solution involved, he said: ''As you know, the judo federation in Asia does allow for some headscarves, it is a version that is safety compliant but also allows for cultural sensitivity.

When I used to do Judo, the uniform was legal to grab. For example, you could grab the lapels and cross them over your opponents neck to choke them out. If the scarf can be used similarly, then I have no problem with it.

This woman didn’t even qualify. Somehow, although she’s never competed internationally, they let her in. She holds a blue belt, when a black belt is required.

As one former Olympian in the sport asked, “There are three world champions who will be sitting at home because they didn’t qualify for London,” he said. “So why should someone who doesn’t have that level be allowed to compete?”

“It just gives the opponent something else to grabor is that not allowed?”

I don’ think it will make any difference. She is only a Blue belt who never competed internationally. Most of her opponents will be battle hardened female Judoka of varying Black belt rank and they won't screw around. Someone is going to stack her on her head within 30 sec and its going to hurt. If someone takes pity on her they will just choke her out.

Can’t wait for a Sikh wrestler to demand that he be allowed to wear a turban (complete with knife, of course).

I don’t know much about Islam, but it seems to me that a woman appearing in public without a headscarf isn’t nearly as offensive to that cult as a woman *participating in athletic activities in public*, particularly WRESTLING.

As one former Olympian in the sport asked, There are three world champions who will be sitting at home because they didnt qualify for London, he said. So why should someone who doesnt have that level be allowed to compete?

FWIU, the Olympic committee has trended towards "let everyone have an opportunity to participate in the games" while restricting the most qualified. For this reason, Jordyn Wieber, one of the Fab 5 US gymnasts, failed to qualify. Countries are limited to two gymnasts in the all-around and event finals, in order to give "everyone" an opportunity to participate, regardless of their gymnastic skills. Can you say 'stupid'?

21
posted on 08/01/2012 3:35:06 PM PDT
by NYer
(Without justice, what else is the State but a great band of robbers? - St. Augustine)

Good link and some very good points. I think this little 'jihadista' is going to regret this ploy. A lot of the most basic moves for a judoka are choking out moves. From the beginning of these are taught. Its nice of the head-bag women to give their opponents extra grab material. By the way, Traditional Judo is a very rough sport. Broken bones and dis-located joints are common among practitioners of Traditional Judo. Also, there is much unhappiness in Japan about their Olympic Judo teams' performance - Japan shocked by judo medal failures.

It’s definitely allowed, so if I was to compete against her, I’d be using that extra fabric to my advantage. It should be easy to choke her out, since if she moves to protect the headscarf, you can use her gi against her (or vice versa).

Of course, next, there will be a rule saying that headscarves aren’t legal to touch during the match or something like that. Although, even if that rule was to come about, I’d still look for a way to dislodge it and use it to obscure her vision.

The smartest thing she could do would be just lay it on her head so that when the match starts, it falls off and her opponent can’t use it against her. Unless they come up with a rule that there’s an automatic timeout when it’s dislodged, in order for her to put her cover back on. Sigh.

She’s going to lose in the first bout, no doubt about that. But why all the hate for a woman who is unlucky enough to live in the most misogynistic country in the world who is the first to be alowed to compete for her nation? Not in the true Olympic spirit at all.

I have read that muslim countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have some of the highest incidences of some of the most perverted internet searches in the world, including themes such as incest, rape, bestiality, and child porn.

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